Chapter 64-Game Descent: I Am the Sole Player

Chapter 64

"What's Cui Yuxuan's background?"

Bai Shan stood with her hands in her pockets, a look of amused spectatorship flickering in her eyes as she turned to Huang Yuci.

"Oh, he's pretty well-known in his country. Supposedly made his fortune through cryptocurrency—achieved financial freedom. He has an online account where he occasionally shares crypto trading tips and flaunts his wealth. Got quite a following."

"After the game descended, he stayed pretty high-profile too. There's a lot of discussion about him in K Country—people say he's the type who specifically challenges the strong. A lot of rising players got knocked down by him. Maybe it's the whole 'strength worship' thing, because he's got tons of fans calling him 'hyung' left and right."

"Hyung" was a K Country honorific used by men to address older males. From what Huang Yuci knew, Cui Yuxuan didn't seem to be very old himself.

"But Cui Yuxuan's abilities are very mysterious. I've specifically looked into it—every account says something different. Seems like he has a lot of tricks up his sleeve."

"Anyway, Qin Zhen just made the leaderboard. Hopefully she'll stick around for a while."

Huang Yuci had no personal connection to Qin Zhen and knew nothing about her abilities, but as a fellow Nanzhou player, she naturally rooted for Qin Zhen. Unfortunately, based on available intel, Qin Zhen's situation looked precarious.

She observed the expressions of the other three in the room. Cheng Yue, Bai Shan, and Lin Huijun all seemed quite familiar with Qin Zhen, yet none of them showed the slightest worry—not even Lin Huijun, who was kindhearted enough to risk herself for strangers.

Huang Yuci found it puzzling. Either Qin Zhen was incredibly strong, or... her character left something to be desired.

*

Meanwhile, in another country.

A towering office building stood empty and lifeless, lingering like a wandering ghost beside a deserted street. Hundreds of rooms remained in the chaotic state from the game's arrival—papers and printouts scattered across floors stamped with gray footprints.

A figure in a black hoodie sat in the surveillance room. The building had lost power, yet strangely, the 64 monitors were still lit, every corner of the building clearly visible on screen, every movement impossible to hide.

Cui Yuxuan immediately spotted a person on one of the small screens in the upper left—someone who had appeared out of thin air.

He leaned in closer. The monitor's glow illuminated his protruding eyes and deeply sunken sockets, and he let out a stuttering, eerie laugh.

Everything was just as he'd predicted. The person on screen who had been suddenly teleported in was visibly wounded—the hem of her trench coat was stained red. This Qin Zhen hadn't even had time to survey her surroundings before frantically pulling out healing mineral water to treat her injuries.

The moment someone ascended to the top 100 was their most glorious—and potentially their most vulnerable.

Cui Yuxuan's eyes burned with excitement. He had bet right again!

For as long as he could remember, he had always been the luckiest person around. Without grinding away at his studies, he'd aced the exams and gotten into a top SKY university.

After graduation, his career hit a wall, but by sheer chance he stumbled upon cryptocurrency. He persuaded his entire family to take out loans totaling 10 billion K-won, pouring everything into a newly launched crypto coin.

The coin he'd invested in soon exploded in popularity. Countless people piled in, and his wealth multiplied hundreds of times over!

After achieving financial freedom, he quit his job without hesitation and holed up in his luxury flat, immersed in the stock market and crypto, fantasizing about the day he'd break into K Country's true upper class.

But just twenty days ago, a meme coin he had been bullish on collapsed overnight—exchange liquidations, positions zeroed out, the market in free fall. His tens of billions in wealth evaporated into nothing.

Cui Yuxuan had always believed that higher risk meant higher reward. He was addicted to the thrill of betting small to win big, completely forgetting to leave himself a way out.

Jolted awake from his dream of high society, he was left with nothing but a mortgage on his luxury flat. On the morning of January 27th, he found himself pacing on a bridge.

So many people had gone bankrupt because of the crypto crash that someone jumped from that bridge every day. Cui Yuxuan figured it was his turn.

Just as he climbed onto the railing and was about to jump, a monster with jagged fangs and a gaping maw leaped out of the river, scaring him into toppling backward. He scrambled off the bridge on all fours.

An unexpected miracle had arrived. The game descended, and he received an S-rank talent: [Market Manipulator]!

Cui Yuxuan, who should have been bankrupt and fallen to the bottom of society, effortlessly reinvented himself as a celebrated powerhouse. The player alliance formed by K Country's top conglomerates extended an olive branch; billionaire tycoons called him brother.

The dream he had once longed for—breaking into the upper echelons—had been realized in the most fantastical way imaginable.

Good fortune remained faithfully by his side. Some called him a gambler, an opportunist. Cui Yuxuan scoffed—he was clearly the human embodiment of luck itself!

A colorful spinning wheel suddenly appeared in Cui Yuxuan's hand. He flicked its pointer.

Under Cui Yuxuan's hungry gaze, the pointer spun twice and finally stopped on the red zone marked "300%"—the narrowest section on the entire wheel.

"Daebak!"

[For the next 24 hours, you may use 300% of Qin Zhen's talent "Priceless True Love."]

This was his talent, [Market Manipulator]. As long as he knew the target's name and face, his first skill [Lucky Wheel] could copy the target's talent for 24 hours. The power it could exert depended on whatever number the wheel's pointer landed on.

The minimum was only 30%; the maximum, 300%.

Cui Yuxuan's luck had always been astonishing—the wheel had never landed below 100%. But this was his first time hitting 300%.

Clearly, fortune still smiled upon him. This would be a resounding victory!

*

"Cui Yuxuan sounds pretty mediocre. Probably won't last long either."

Bai Shan had claimed the room's only beanbag chair and was addressing Huang Yuci. "Any other interesting people?"

Huang Yuci clicked her tongue twice. This girl sure had nerve—not worried about Cui Yuxuan winning the Position Swap and making her eat her words.

"Above Cui Yuxuan, there's another K Country player: Lee Jinyoung, rank 35."

"Currently the chairwoman of K Country's largest department store chain. Her mother was the previous chairwoman, and her father is vice chairman of Goshin Group. Whether you trace it through her mother's side or her father's, the family has never not been wealthy."

"K Country has already formed a monopolistic player organization called the New Hope Alliance, centered around Lee Jinyoung, with Goshin Group as the main driving force."

Bai Shan understood—this was the super-plus version of the Xu family.

As far as she knew, Goshin Group accounted for nearly 20% of K Country's entire GDP. Compared to Goshin, the Xu Corporation was nothing more than a roadside commoner.

The Xu family had Cheng Yue; Goshin had Lee Jinyoung. But Lee Jinyoung was likely someone who held real power and wasn't afraid to use it. Internal power struggles within conglomerate families were brutal, and Lee Jinyoung had been chairwoman of K Country's largest department store even before the game arrived. Now, with strength that towered over hundreds of millions, she couldn't possibly be a puppet.

"Similar alliances are popping up all over the world. Quite a few leaderboard players are even advertising for their home organizations."

"The most famous is the third-ranked Fahd Sultan, fourth prince of a desert oil nation. He and his people are always promoting something called the 'City of Tomorrow' plan."

"They say they're going to carve out a sacred land for all of humanity in this cruel game world, leading the next era... I asked in the channel if women could wear flip-flops into their sacred land. They told me to get lost."

Huang Yuci shrugged innocently.

"Europe and America haven't formed monopolistic organizations yet, but there are a few that are exceptionally notorious—comparable to terrorist groups."

"For instance, the infamous 'Bad Boys.' Their leader, Miles Brown, has climbed to rank 40. He has a feud with the 59th-ranked Hani Garcia, because Hani killed his brother. He's been hunting her ever since."

"Hani Garcia seems to have been on the run with her family. To flush her out, the 'Bad Boys' have been using increasingly savage methods."

"They claim that until they find Hani Garcia, they have to take out their rage on others—and those unfortunate victims should blame Garcia. So a lot of locals have joined Miles in hunting Garcia just to protect themselves."

Lin Huijun's face twisted with disgust. In the game era, she could understand killing in self-defense, but she would forever despise those who killed for sport.

Sadly, such people existed in every era.

If she were Hani Garcia, she would probably use the Position Swap Order to fight Miles to the death.

But Lin Huijun also understood why Hani hadn't done so. It wasn't a lack of courage—she had family behind her. If she lost, the consequences would be devastating.

Her family would bear the price of failure, subjected to frenzied retaliation.

"The 'Bad Boys Alliance' already has over a hundred psychos. I hear plenty of them are in their thirties or forties—even older—and they still shamelessly call themselves 'boys'... I can't even talk about it. Ugh, depressing. Ugh, infuriating."

Huang Yuci shook her head with a sardonic edge, clearly disgusted.

"What about the Southern Continent?"

Bai Shan suddenly asked.

"Huh? The Southern Continent... very low profile. From what I recall, not a single top-100 player is from there... maybe there is one, but there's no information."

Huang Yuci flipped through her notebook, racking her brain, and found she truly couldn't scrape together any intel.

But on second thought, the Southern Continent had always kept a low profile. Other than drugs, gangs, and cherries, nothing came to mind.

"Ahem, I may not know about the Southern Continent, but I do know about the strongest player on the Northern Continent—"

Bai Shan's eyes suddenly lit up. She interrupted Huang Yuci of her own accord. "The strongest on the Southern Continent should be Harper Brown."

"Huh?" The interrupted Huang Yuci looked confused. "She's ranked fourth, but is she from the Southern Continent?"

Bai Shan had just had a flash of insight. She recalled Harper Brown's channel posts—she was in a remote wilderness teeming with wildlife.

Yesterday, Harper Brown had killed the "Anaconda King."

If it was the anaconda Bai Shan was thinking of, it was the heaviest snake in the world, found exclusively in the tropical rainforests of the Southern Continent—a true apex predator.

There was a very high probability that Harper Brown was in a Southern Continent rainforest.

While it was unclear why she had ended up in a rainforest, since she was busy surviving there, she probably had no connection to the Southern Continent organization that killed Camila.

In fact, that organization might even set its sights on Harper Brown in the rainforest.

"Huang Yuci, I want that notebook of yours."

"Huh?"

Huang Yuci immediately clutched the notebook tight.

Two bottles of mineral water suddenly appeared in Bai Shan's hands. She sat on the beanbag without the slightest intention of moving, tossing the bottles one after another at Huang Yuci. Huang Yuci instinctively scrambled to catch them, and the unattended notebook dropped to the floor.

Bai Shan reached forward, and the yellow-covered notebook flew into her hand.

Huang Yuci stood holding two inexplicable bottles of water, watching her notebook fly into Bai Shan's hands, her chest heaving with anger, eyes nearly shooting flames—

"Two bottles of healing mineral water, in exchange for your notebook."

The anger that had just flared was instantly doused. Huang Yuci wondered if she had heard wrong. Healing mineral water? Was it what she thought it was?

Impossible! Items couldn't be traded—did Bai Shan think she was that gullible?

"It's real."

Cheng Yue suddenly spoke up, her expression serious. "Take them, Yuci. Those are two A-rank healing items."

"What? What?"

Huang Yuci was utterly baffled. She tried storing the two bottles in her game inventory and found it didn't work.

She still couldn't believe it, but when she looked up and met Bai Shan's calm, self-assured gaze, the fire in Huang Yuci died down at once.

"Fine, take it then." She muttered.

Bai Shan let out a short laugh and stood up. The moment she rose, another global broadcast sounded.

[Player Qin Zhen has killed Player Cui Yuxuan!]

[Cui Yuxuan's Position Swap has failed!]

Hearing the news, Bai Shan was utterly unsurprised. Her movements didn't falter for even a second. Notebook in one hand, she waved the other at Huang Yuci and Cheng Yue.

She had completed her final small objective in Nanzhou.

"We're leaving."

Bai Shan said, "Bye-bye."

"Thank you both for taking care of us these past few days. It was truly wonderful getting to know you in Nanzhou."

Lin Huijun spoke with a smile, then solemnly bid them farewell.

With that, the two turned and left the room.

Cheng Yue leaned against the windowsill, watching them walk downstairs. Two figures boarded the black RV.

Huang Yuci stood in the center of the room, face bewildered, arms stiffly clutching the two bottles. After quite a while, she finally broke the silence.

"They're not really going to Hai City, are they?"

Only then did Cheng Yue withdraw her gaze, a helpless smile in her eyes. "They're not the type to take detours."

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